AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: Organic vs. Mechanical Web-shooters

Ok, so mechanical is more faithful to the comics, but does it make as much sense to use? Raimi's movies worked very well after all. Check out one fan's editorial (and poll) about the webbing changes in the NEW Spider-Man movie...

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By MagicPuppy - 6/12/2012

As everyone knows by now, Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-man will use mechanical web-shooters instead of Raimi's organic ones, which should be noted is true to the comics as written by Stan "the man" Lee and drawn by the legendary Steve Ditko. But was this wise? With the new origin story focusing seemingly on the purposeful manipulation of Peter Parker's genetics with a spider, wouldn't it be even more natural to have kept the organic web-shooters?

To be honest, I am still somewhat skeptical that this new Spidey movie will be accepted as well as Raimi's movies were. I was surprised when they scrapped Raimi's Spider-Man 4 and announced the reboot back in January 2010. While Spider-Man 3 had it's problems (the strutting disco walk and dancing scene--ugh!), it made a LOT of money and I figured the franchise would get back on track with a 4th film. So, when Sony went with the reboot I was not particularly thrilled with the idea. My concerns were validated when we learned that we would be put through yet another origin story with Petey back in high school. Can't our heroes ever grow up? Why to they keep rebooting them younger? What's next? A Spider-Baby movie?

But I digress. So, back to the topic at hand... When Sam Raimi took Spider-Man to the screen in 2002, he made a major departure from the classic mythology of the character by portraying the webbing as a organic substance created by Parker’s mutated biology. The move seemed to smartly streamline the origin but some purists complained that it tampered too much with tradition. Webb says that when he took on the reboot project he wanted to go his own path, which meant breaking from the Raimi movies in places where it made sense — and when it came to the webbing he sought out some very specialized counsel.

“I had a meeting with Stan Lee and we talked about the web-shooters,” Webb said. “I was curious about the incarnation of them [because] of course in the previous films [they went away from them] and we wanted to reestablish ourselves. That was one thing but the other thing was the fact that the web-shooters were able to dramatize Peter’s intellect and I thought that was really cool. ... It was in the comics and we have a different design but it’s a cool element to have. It’s not something we over-use or over-exploit. To me, it’s something I remember from when I was a kid and thinking ‘It would be cool if I could build those.’”

While highlighting Peter's intellectual, scientific background is all well and good, in my humble opinion, I think Raimi improved the story in his films with the organic web-shooters. It made much more sense. How can you be identified as being part spider WITHOUT webbing? That is an essential component of spiderhood! Especially since the focus on this new Spidey is the idea that Peter's genetics are altered purposefully.

But of course, what do I know. Let me know what you think in the poll and comments below.

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i'm glad Webb decided on the mechanical web shooters after meeting with Stan. As Stan said in the other recent interview posted, he always pictured Peter as a very smart nerd. Peter always used his intellect ALONG WITH his spidey abilities. So it's good to highlight his intellect with the shooters.

Plus, he can already walk on walls, what more should he have? hairy arms? hundreds of eyes? six arms? (man spider). His classic spidey sense, super strength and wall crawling abilities show off his spider side perfectly. The mechanical shooters are a great balance to those attributes to show off his intellect.

@ Pepsiguy2. He got organic webbing after he turned into a giant spider. That was back during the Avengers Disassembled arc. It involved the Queen and Captain America. Was written by Paul Jenkins in 2004. After One More Day, in 2008, he went back to his original shooters. So he had organic webbing for about 4 years.

Nah, mechanical makes more sense. It's not like he's half spider half human. He's still all human. Plus spiders don't shoot out their webs anyways, they only drag them out. So if you were to make that more real then he could only use his web for coming down buildings after he climbed them or for wrapping up baddies.

I think the only reason Raimi went organic on the web is so he can have that moment where he didn't believe in himself like Naruto and lost his powers. LoL, that part was so cliche

You're right. Spidey's mechanical webs have ALWAYS been in the comics. But the point this article is making is that "For the sake of movie purposes" and for Raimi's tone and pace of HIS movie, he decided to use organic web shooters. Are comic book elements ALWAYS going to be the EXACT same thing in their movie adaptations? No. Of course not. We need to be flexible. Because it doesn't always work out. The organic web shooters WORKED. They may not have been the same as the comic books, but it still complimented the essence and feel of the heart of Raimi's Spider-Man. We can't always be hardcore about the little things. We should be more worried about the essence of our characters. We should be more worried about whether the directors and writers can present the heart of the characters in the way we read them.

Mechanical Web-shooters is much better cause you can build a story on how smart Peter Parker is. also Mechanical Web-shooters can show the element of when the web-shooter runs out what Spider-Man can do in a tough situation.

@Just1Superguy He doesn't have Spider powers? Spider sense, jumping, great reflexes, climbing walls... It was explain pretty good in Raimi's movies when this woman talked about spiders. he just can't make web and it's logical cause spiders don't use their legs to make webs and if you don't won't him using his ass to swing then STFU. Oh and I don't know if you realize that not every spider makes web.

While I never heard of Spider-Man until I was 6 because of Sam Raimi's original film and my dad stopped collecting comics in the mid 90's, I feel that despite the good idea of organic webbing I feel the mechanical webshooters are better because it creates more drama. Especially when fighting, cause what if he ran out of webbing? I like them being somewhat closer to the comics

Wow! My first comment. I've been a visitor of this site for a couple of years but today, I've decided to create an account and join my fellow CBM'ers in thought-provoking conversation about comic-based movies. On topic, my vote is for mechanical web-shooters 'cause that is what Stan intended them to be.